Using the technology of today, in the classroom today

ABSTRACT

The Education Arcade (2009). The Education Arcade white paper on the
using technology of today, in the classroom today: the instructional power of digital games, social networking, and simulations and how teachers can leverage them [White paper]. Retrieved from edu.mit.edu/papers/GamesSimsSocNets_EdArcade.pdf

Klopfer, Osterweil, Groff, and Haas point out the effectiveness and usefulness of using digital games, social networking, and simultations in the classroom. The findings of the white paper discuss how different games, simulations, and social networking build critical skills in this generations' students and a foundation for what they call a new social constructivist pedagogy in the classroom. Through case studies and citing various other reports on gaming and media influence on student learning, the authors at the Education Arcade, a MIT gaming research facility aim to prove the effectiveness of using these technologies in the classroom. They claim that "over 154 million Americans play video games(over half of the population)", therefore signaling a shift in digital culture and a new emerging generation of gaming minds. Teachers need to tap into the fact that students are already entering classrooms wired with the skills that gaming has taught them: problem solving, conflict resoultion, overcoming challenges, competitive play, interactivity, goal setting, and feedback. Through gaming, students are able to be immersed in the context for which educators can then use to manipulate learning outcomes. In the case of a 7th grade teacher, his use of the game "Civilization" was a launching point to teach students in his class about history. With simulations, students are more able to interact in the classroom through real-world role-play. These "real-life" simulations, such as SimCity, offer students a chance to place themselves in a context without having to actually do what is being asked of them in the real world. They can manipulate land-use city planning without actually having to build a city, and yet gain the valuable skills attained at this kind of real-worl problem solving. And, in social networking, the authors conclude that through using sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Ning, and others, students create a student database where they guide and control the interactions between them and carry on conversations outside of the classroom that would otherwise end in the classroom. Through the networking sites, they learn to collaborate and interact with others in a context that makes it safer for some students to express themselves.

Overall, the case studies were interesting and predicatably biased accounts of the positive uses of these technologies in the classroom. The factor I appreciated most was that the authors followed up on the same teachers in the case studies a few years after to discuss how using these technologies has changed and adapted over the years. They also claim that they have no idea what future the students who are using these technologies will enter, however, their point is that we as teachers must learn to keep up with this generation's students and engage them with the technologies that they are using on a day to day basis if we are to keep student motivation high. If we can find value in using the mainstream media to teach important concepts that they need to learn, we can engage them quicker and more effectively in the content.

The specific implications in my own teaching practice came to light when I read the case study about a teacher's use of Ning, a social networking site that limits traffic to teacher monitored invites only. I had already collaborated with a colleague on the idea of using Ning to connect our classrooms. I think that it could be a powerful tool yet the implications of using these medias, while exciting and new, also have to be regarded with a certain critical eye. Computers in the classroom have certainly revolutionized the way teachers teach today, however, misuse or misappropriation of the technology can have negative impacts as well on student learning and engagement. I think that it is important to read these kinds of studies, but also to assess how it's value in my own classroom will affect the ways students learn and engage. The ideas and links to different games and their uses were helpful, and offered insight into how to integrate this technology in the classroom. Especially relevant were quotes from teachers, such as this 7th grade teacher, "games teach students the conceptual knowledge and sets the environment for you to teach what you want."

The notion of a new pedagogy arising out of a constructivist approach, social constructivism, interest me very much with regard to my own teaching practice. I have been thinking repeatedly about the ways in which students are learning today with the rise of so many new technologies entering their frame of mind. I believe collaborative processes are essential for our students to learn how to engage in the real world situations they will be faced with for the rest of their lives. I also believe that real world simulations in situated learning experiences can be beneficial. The idea which struck me the most was the acceptance of "you and the kids become partners in learning." I am both swayed and intimidated by this kind of statement. It seems bold to me to say that we are now allowing students to become partners, equals in the playing field of education because of the facility of technology and digital media arriving in the hands of students who are now in a position of power. What's at stake is that teachers are playing a constant game of catch-up in a world where they no longer have what it takes to stay ahead of a media-raised net-gen kid. If we are to be "partners in learning", this can be empowering for students but perhaps detrimental to society. It means a shift in control and a changing of roles. Perhaps this could mean that kids grow up faster, enter business earlier, skate through college faster, and become overly-productive, and more prone to losing a sense of human quality, emotiveness, and value that once made us who we are. I think there is still more to question as we continue and watch more digital generation kids enter the "real world."